Editorial: A Nobel nominee wise beyond her years

Malala Yousafzai poses for photographs on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2013, in New York. Yousafzai, was shot by the Taliban for her advocating education for girls. Yousafzai won the $65,000 Sakharov Award, Europe's top human rights award and is a likely contender for the Nobel Peace Prize. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Most teenaged girls like to giggle over their favorite rock stars, talk about their favorite movies and compare their favorite face creams. Sixteen-year-old Malala Yousafzai is no different, except for one thing.

She is the youngest person ever nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. The Pakistani native has earned that nomination for courageously speaking out, starting at the age of 11, on the importance of education for girls in a country that has been poisoned by the oppressive elements of the Taliban.

In an attempt to silence her, the terrorist organization’s leaders sent a partially masked assassin to pump bullets into the child’s face when she was on her school bus on Oct. 9, 2012. The first bullet pierced her left eye socket and exited under her left shoulder. The other two bullets struck Shazia Ramzan and Kainat Riaz, who both have recovered from lesser wounds.

Malala has also recovered from the injuries rendered by the terrorist’s bullet that narrowly missed her brain, after being taken in a medically induced coma to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England. She was on her feet within a week and has mercifully been spared any permanent neurological damage.

That is clear as soon as she opens her mouth.

“They thought the bullets would silence us, but they failed. And then, out of that silence, came thousands of voices,” Malala told the United Nations General Assembly last July on her 16th birthday, just nine months after she was shot.

It is not only the teenager’s bravery that has qualified her for the prestigious peace prize. It is the wisdom she exudes in sizing up the Taliban terrorists who reportedly still have her in their sights. Even when she first learned they were threatening her via the Internet, Malala already knew she did not want to stoop to their violent level.

At first she thought that maybe she would hit the would-be assassin with her shoes.

“But then I’d think that if I did that, there would be no difference between me and a terrorist. It would be better to plead, ‘Okay, shoot me, but first listen to me. What you are doing is wrong. I’m not against you personally. I just want every girl to go to school,’” said Malala.

Even so, for safety’s sake, Malala and her family are now living in Birmingham where she is attending an all-girls high school. Her friend, Shazia, is also a British resident and Kainat has applied for a British visa.

But the Pakistani teen has not abandoned her crusade. She is launching the Malala Fund to help girls fight for their right to education and she has urged United Nations youth delegates to advocate for the education of an estimated 57 million school-age children from around the world who receive none.

While Americans may feel far-removed from the discriminatory policies of such terrorist groups as the Taliban, they should remember that women in this country have only had the right to vote for 93 years and the Civil Rights Act outlawing discrimination against women and racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities was passed less than 50 years ago. It ensured equal access to voting, a right that is being threatened even today in several states including Pennsylvania with its so-called Voter ID regulations that the court has wisely put on hold. Gay and lesbian couples are still not permitted to legally marry in Pennsylvania despite the U.S. Supreme Court declaring such discrimination unconstitutional.

Equal access to health care is also being threatened by tea party House Republicans who shut down the federal government in an attempt to defund the Affordable Care Act. And, equal access to education is also in danger. Here in Pennsylvania education funding at every level has been slashed in the last three years as a means to defray the state deficit while oil companies drill the Marcellus Shale region, tax-free.

The intolerance that produced a bullet in the face for Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai at the age of 15 pervades all countries in some way, shape or form and the United States is no exception. She should be a reminder to all of the courage it takes to defy those who oppress others for their own selfish gain.